my views of New Zealand: birthday

4/07/2011

It's birthday time!

My birthday is in a few days, but with Hubby's schedule and Otterboy only being with us every other week, we usually schedule such celebrations on the last day when we all are at the house. I got a cake baked by the wonderful Otterboy on Tuesday--chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. It was fabulous!

Otteboy got me these lovely wooden kiwis. Aren't they just cute with their dangly feet?!?!

And, this is my gift from Hubby. It's an old John Deere tractor seat made into a custom-build stool! He had ordered it when we were in Nelson on holiday in January. So far, his being 'sneaky' has proved beneficial for me, so I guess I won't worry about it.

Now, before you start rolling your eyes, let me explain the John Deere 'thing'. When Hubby and I were getting to know each other before I moved to NZ, we would IM a lot. At one point, we were sharing musical tastes and I was into country music at the time.

I sent him a link to Joe Diffie's song 'John Deere Green' and, in the bizarre and mysterious way that men's minds work, John Deere instantly became a household word and took on a life of its own.

Hubby photo-shopped our names onto a water tower in green and emailed it to me. He ordered a John Deere flower holder from South Carolina, sent it to the local florist in Holton, KS, called the florist and asked for yellow and green flowers to be put in it and delivered and then he kept me on IM until they arrived that morning, the sneaky bugger!

I sent him some Joe Diffie CD's and he and the kids listened to it a lot--enough to memorize the words to 'John Deere Green', 'Third Rock from the Sun' and a couple more songs--which we still sing at the tops of our lungs on long trips.

Since this is dairy and farming country, we try to be the first to spot John Deere tractors. Sometimes they are on the road, sometimes they are in fields. But we always smile triumphantly when we are the first to call out 'John Deere!' correctly. On the occasion that a tractor is not a John Deere, then it's called a 'Joe Moose'. (Get it?! John- Joe, deer-moose).

OK, we may be strange, but we're happy. And being 39 again is pretty darn nice!